Social Media: Waste of Time or Opportunity?

One of the biggest growth areas in our business here at The Logo Company is the design of logos and other graphics for use on social media sites. What makes this an opportunity specific to designers is that each of the social media platforms has different size and shape requirements for uploading and displaying logos. This often means adjusting the design so that not only does it fit, but it also looks fantastic when uploaded to say facebook. Take the logo on our facebook page as an example.

See how the logo is more square than our logo above on this website. See how ours had to be redesigned to work on this specific social media platform. But why should we as businesses, jump through the hoops of these social channels?

If you need more business and you fail to hang out where your customers are, you could be missing out on some big opportunities. To find out how big, read on.

In any business, product placement is essential to draw the eye of potential consumers, get them interested, and keep them coming back. Social media isn’t a product in and of itself, but its placement is just as important for getting customers, readers, and even advertisers to interact with you. In addition to making the most of all social media platforms, you need to advertise your own presence, because those recognizable social media logos aren’t just a way to make your website look pretty.

Facebook Facts

Facebook’s logo is a simple lowercase “f,” but it is instantly recognizable, even to people who aren’t tempted to use it. Although the logo isn’t the only reason Facebook remains one of the biggest social media sites in the world, it definitely makes a difference. The site itself is quite impactful, and if you aren’t using it to your advantage you are missing out on such things as:

Making sure that the 18 minutes users spend on Facebook each day will benefit your brand

Getting your fair share of the 72 million “likes” clicked on Facebook every day

Facebook sees 144 million friend requests a day as well. If some of those requests aren’t being sent to your page, what are you doing wrong?

Twitter Talk

Forget the blue bird of happiness, because the blue bird of Twitter will do more for your brand or business. Twitter is a juggernaut in the world of social media, allowing for by-the-minute updates, tweets, and shares. Put the logo linking to your own Twitter somewhere on your site and it’s likely that visitors will check out your page just to satisfy their curiosity and see who follows you—and whom you follow, of course. Each user has an average follower list of around 208 Twitter users. You don’t want to miss out on that potential customer base.

In some respects, Twitter is easier to use than Facebook, just because it lends itself very well to mobility. For example, 60 percent of Twitter users tweet using their mobile devices. Whether mobile or on a computer, there are 645,750,000 users on the site. Among them, they:

Spend almost 13 minutes a day on the site

Send over 500 million tweets

And engage in 2.1 billion search engine queries

Pinpoint Pinterest

Pinterest is a huge comer in the world of social media, with users falling into Pin-holes and losing hours each day. The average user spends 14.2 minutes on the site per day, but if you have ever fallen into a Pinning-trance, you know the numbers can climb higher than that. Far too many companies and businesses fail to realize the potential here, and they don’t cash in on Pinterest’s pull.

Think about this: 80 percent of all pins are re-pins—so users could spend their time re-pinning photos and ideas from your boards if you use them correctly. If you have any niche products geared toward parents, mothers, or women, you also have lots of Pin-potential, because 80 percent of users are women and half of all users have kids.

The potential for growth is your biggest coup, however. Pinterest has 70 million users, which is impressive. What’s even more impressive is the number of unique visitors the platform sees each month: 10 million. It’s grown at a faster rate than any other independent site in history. Are you cashing in on that? Are you ready to put a Pinterest button on your page now?

Link Up on LinkedIn

Anytime you want to network, find new employees, or simply increase your reach, you need to think about LinkedIn. In fact, the networking opportunities alone make joining worthwhile. Out of its 277 million users, they spend 17 minutes each month on the site—and if that doesn’t impress you, just realize that 40 percent of users check the site each day. If you’re not one of the 3 million businesses linked in, you need to reconsider your options. Users create 8,000 groups a day, so now there’s a total of 2.1 million.

Picture Instagram

Instagram, with its eye-catching logo, is about more than selfies and foodie pictures. It’s becoming not just popular but relevant, even necessary. More and more businesses encourage their customers to Instagram, developing their own hashtags and inviting photos of their products and services. It takes word-of-mouth advertising to the next level. Altogether, the platform’s 150 million users spend 257 minutes checking their Instagram per month, which leads to 16 billion photos shared—and counting. Daily, the site does even better:

55 million photos get uploaded each day

There are 1.2 billion new likes every day

And 70 percent of Instagram users check their pages each day

Going Google+

Google+ is a severely underrated social media platform because it has some very interesting statistics you may not yet know. Despite being called an “underdog,” it has 300 million users, who spend almost 7 minutes a month on their G+ accounts. This is another mobile-friendly site, with 20 million of those users checking their profiles and groups on mobile each month.

In many ways, Google+ is like a combination of all your favorite social media tools. It sees 1.5 billion photos uploaded weekly, and the groups and circles functions lend themselves well to networking. Throughout the year, the platform sees an admirable 33 percent growth. Again, for targeted audiences, realize that Google+ is a huge target for users between the ages of 45-54. It’s seen a 56 percent growth in that age group.

YouTube Tally

With the increasing popularity of Vine videos, video reviews, and vlogs, YouTube is still going strong. It sees over a billion visitors every month, and they spend an average of 3 hours on the site. Every single minute, 100 hours of video get uploaded on YouTube. Think about those possibilities.

Spending time uploading your own videos or inviting your audience to do the same isn’t a waste. Monthly, users watch 6 billion hours of video. Daily, they watch 4 billion hours. Around 600 million of them view videos on mobile devices—and they record videos on mobile devices as well. Are you ‘Tubing yet?

Social media is the cornerstone for success in today’s tech-driven world. This IG breaks down what you’re missing out on if you aren’t using social media. Don’t get left in the virtual dust.